Powerful & Effective Prayer (James 5:16-18) [2026-3-1]

All right, good morning. Once again, church family, if

you would open your Bibles to the Book of James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

This morning we're going to be in verses 16 to 18.

This will be our last passage in the book of James.

We've been going through it for several months, and next week, I

don't know, I I started creating a list of books in the Old

Testament. I usually switch between the Old

and New Testament. Next week will be somewhere in

the Old Testament, unless the Lord leads me to stay in the

New. And I started creating the list,

but I have not whittled it down yet as to which one I want to do

so, but I will let you know this week.

But we get to our last sermon in the book of James this morning,

James 516 to 18. So let's read the text.

I'll open this in a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into

the sermon this morning, James 5, beginning in verse 16.

Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one

another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person

has great power as it is working.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed

fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and

six months it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore

its fruit. You will pray with me, Father,

as we close out the book of James this morning, we are

thankful for the truths that you have taught us over the past

several months through this book.

Thank you, God, for refining our faith, sanctifying us through

these words. We pray that you would do the

same here this morning. Lord, as we continue to look at

the topic of prayer and sin and confession and sickness and all

these topics. Lord, would you refine us, God,

and sanctify us. Lord, we know that all of us who

who have a humble heart, would, would, would gladly confess that

our prayer life needs refining, needs sanctifying.

We pray, Lord, that you would please exposed to us the the

areas that maybe we're blind to or maybe that are rough around

the edges and that need the spirits smoothing out, that

needs refinement to look like Jesus.

And so, Lord, would you teach us this morning that about the the

power and the the effectiveness of prayer.

I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Sometimes my, my boys, my four

sons that are sitting up here on the front row, they will want to

ask me for something, whether it's to, to buy something or to

do something or to go somewhere, you know, or any number of

things. And they're not sure what my

response will be. So they try to guess among them

which of the four of them is more likely to get a positive

response from Dad. It varies from question to

question. You know, they're like you.

You, you go ask him. No, you, you got a better

chance. You go ask him.

He'll say yes to you. As much as I find this humorous,

I will tell them. Guys, it doesn't matter who

asked me. My willingness to say yes to a

request is always based on your last name, not your first name.

It is by virtue of you being a son, and the same is true for

you and me. What makes our prayers powerful

and effective is not our first name, but the name of His Son,

Jesus Christ. That's what the sermon is about

this morning. Powerful and effective prayers.

So let's start with exhibition of the text.

I'm going to give us the context if you weren't here last week,

they they kind of go together and then we'll pick up with

exposition and then I'll give you application.

So the context last week we saw that James had asked the church

3 questions and given them three responses.

Question one was is anyone suffering?

Response one, let him pray. Question 2, is anyone cheerful

response to let him sing praises.

And question 3 is, is anyone sick?

Response three, let the elders pray over him.

And then James gives 2 promises to these questions and

responses. Promise one, the prayer of faith

will heal the one who is sick. And the promise to if he has

committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

That's what we looked at last week.

And this morning James is going to continue with themes of

prayer and sin and healing. So let's start by looking at our

text, verse 16 A this first statement that James gives us.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

So James starts off our passage this morning with a command.

Confess your sins to one another.

Now I want to point out three aspects of this statement.

Number one, I want to draw your attention to this word.

Therefore, anytime you see the word, therefore, you should

figure out what is it connecting to.

Let's first discuss this word. Therefore, James had previously

written, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

Did you catch that? What's the point that James is

making here? James is essentially saying,

listen, brothers and sisters, if God Forgives our sins, and he

does because he just said so, why would we ever be fearful or

hesitant to confess our sins to one another?

You see, we always confess sins as forgiven sinners.

That's the starting point. When I confess sins to you, When

you confess sins to me, if you are in Christ, you are

confessing those sins as a forgiven Sinner.

Second point I want to mention. Notice this phrase.

One another confess your sins to one another.

Notice James doesn't say confess your sins to God.

To be sure, we should do that, but that's not James's point

here. James says confess your sins to

one another. In addition to confessing sins

to God, we are actually told to confess our sins to one another

to fellow Christians. And then #3 I want to point out

is I want you to notice this is a command.

Now we can't see that in English, but in the Greek the

verb for confess is in the imperative mood, which means

it's a command, which means to not do this, to not confess our

sins to one another, is disobedience.

Look at verse 16. B.

Pray for one another. Confess your sins to one

another. Pray for another.

The second command that James gives is to pray for one

another. Let me point out two aspects of

this statement. Number one, this is given to the

church. This is given to the church.

Now we see different categories of prayer in this passage.

In verse 13 last week we saw that we are to pray for

ourselves. Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray for himself. In verse 14, we see prayers by

the leadership. Is anyone sick?

Let the elders pray over him. So we have prayers for yourself,

leadership praying over you. And now in verse 16, he says we

are to pray for the church by the church.

We are to all be praying for one another.

So number one, that's it's given to the church #2 this is also a

command. The Greek verb for pray is again

in the imperative mood, which means to not pray for one

another is disobedience. One of my favorite verses on

prayer is First Samuel 1223, where Samuel says, moreover, As

for me, far be it for me from me that I should sin against the

Lord by ceasing to pray for you. Look at verse 16 C that you may

be healed. Now I want to point out two

aspects of this statement. This number one, this word

healed That word healed there. It's it's a different verb than

he used in verse 15. Remember last, if you were here

last week in verse 15, James wrote and the prayer of faith

will what save the one who was sick, the sozo.

But that's not the verb that he uses here.

He uses the word yeomi, which that 25 of the 26 times it's

translated as heal. The other time, it's the other

one time it's translated as cure.

That reinforces the idea that I told you last week.

I don't think he's talking about salvation here when he uses that

verb. I think he's talking about

healing. I think it reinforces that idea

that he's talking about healing. And then #2 I want to point out

this word that don't miss that word that just as I said it,

when you see the word, therefore you should find out what is

connecting. When you see like so that or

that it's connecting something, that word that hopos, it's a

purpose or result clause. It tells us that this statement

is connected with what comes before it.

They're connected. Now, how are they connected?

James is saying that if we desire to be healed, we should

do two things. A.

We should confess our sins to one another.

B. We should pray for one another.

Now, let's be clear. Confession and prayer doesn't

guarantee healing, but it does position us for it.

It doesn't guarantee it, but it does position us for it.

I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Look at last 16 D The prayer of a righteous person has great

power as it is working. This last statement in verse 16,

it's actually translated several different ways.

ESV, translated as the prayer of a righteous person has great

power as it's working. The NASB says the effective

prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

NIV has the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and

effective. That Bible has the prayer of a

righteous person has great effectiveness.

CSB has the prayer of a righteous person is very

powerful and its effect. So I think any of those will

work. It's just a matter of I guess

maybe preference of of how you think the the Greek should be

translated. Three questions come to my mind

with this statement, though. Let's take them one at a time.

Number one, who is the righteous person?

He says the prayer of a righteous person who is a

righteous person. This is very important.

The Bible speaks of two categories of righteous A those

who are positionally righteous, positionally righteous.

This is refers to all those in Christ.

If you are in Christ, you are a righteous person.

If somebody were to, if I were to walk up to you and ask and

say are you a righteous person, what would you say?

Hopefully you would say in Christ I am.

If you're in Christ, you are righteous, you are positionally

righteous. You have been clothed with the

righteousness of Christ. That's AB those who are

practically righteous, those who are practically, this is those

who are referred to as walking in righteousness.

Now we all know that you can be in Christ but not really be

walking in righteousness, right? You can be walking in sin.

There are those who are practically righteous, they are

walking in righteousness. Now here's the question.

When James says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful,

effective, is he referring to a positionally righteous person or

a practically righteous person? Which of the two is he referring

to? Considering what he is about to

say in verse 17, I think he is referring to someone who is

positionally righteous. I don't think he was running to

somebody who was practically righteous, though that would be

true as well. If you're practically righteous,

you're both. But I think he's saying someone

who is positionally righteous. I don't think he's referring to

a special category of Christians, but to any

Christian, to anyone who was in Christ.

I'll come back to that idea #2 second question, how are we to

understand this power and effectiveness?

James is about to give an example of it with the prophet

Elijah and question three. Why is the prayer of a righteous

person powerful and effective? If we take it as positionally

righteous, that means that all in Christ, when they pray their

prayers are powerful and effective.

Why is that? What makes our prayers powerful

and effective? Let's be clear on this.

It's not because of the righteous person.

It's not because of the righteous person.

I'll talk more about this in the application looking for 17 A

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

James here introduces Elijah. Now earlier he did this with

Joe, right? He introduced Joe kind of like

this out of the blue and now he introduces another man from the

Old Testament, Elijah. Why does he start talking about

Elijah? This out of nowhere talking

about Elijah. The 2 greatest figures in the

Israelites eyes were Moses and Elijah.

The Israelites all esteem these two men, Moses and Elijah.

Elijah was seen as one of the greatest prophets in Israel's

history. John the Baptist was called the

Elijah who was to come the crowds.

They even thought that Jesus was Elijah risen from the dead.

When he said, who do some people say that I am?

Some thought he was Elijah because I mean, if you're Elijah

man, Jesus got mistaken for me. Elijah is one of the two

prophets who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Moses and Elijah appear on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Jesus references Elijah and his teachings.

The bystanders thought that Jesus was calling out for Elijah

when he was on the cross. Other than Jesus, you would be

hard pressed to find a more significant character in the

Bible than Elijah. And yet look at what James says.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

What does that mean? That word for nature is this the

all? It's only used one other time in

the New Testament when Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra.

If you remember in Acts, they went to Lystra and Paul had

healed a man who was crippled and and and never walked a day

in his life. And after they healed this man,

the crowd shouted out, the gods have come down to us in the

likeness of men. They thought Paul and Barnabas

were gods and Paul said to them, men, why are you doing these

things? We also are men here.

It is of like nature as you. Same word.

I think James is trying to stress to the church that there

was nothing supernatural about Elijah.

He simply served as supernatural God.

He was a human being just like you and me, looking for 17 B to

18. And he prayed fervently that it

might not rain. And for three years and six

months it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore

its fruit. James here references First

Kings 17 One, if you remember the story in First Kings, Elijah

the Tisch Spite said to Ahab, who's the king at the time.

As the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there

shall be neither do nor reign these years except by my word.

Now the author Kings doesn't mention this, but James writes

that this came about because of Elijah's prayer, his fervent

prayer. Not just prayer, but he says

fervent prayer. He prayed and for three years

and six months there was no rain in the land of Israel.

Wish Elijah would come to Seattle.

That is a very long and significant miracle.

Think about that, to pray and it not rain for 3 1/2 years.

Now that wasn't a blessing, that was a drought.

Elijah prayed again and God sent rain.

I want you to imagine. Imagine one man's prayer causing

a three-year drought and one man's prayer ending a three-year

drought. That is the power of prayer.

Let's stop there. With that exposition application

of the text, I have 7 truths for US7 truths #1 If God Forgives

our sins. Why would we ever be fearful or

hesitant to confess our sins to one another if God Forgives our

sins? Why would we ever be fearful or

hesitant to confess our sins to one another?

Do you remember how when we were children, maybe some of you,

this was this is not true of you, this was true of me.

Maybe it's true of some of you. I don't know.

But do you remember how maybe when we were children, if you

ever broke something in the house or you did something that

you weren't supposed to do, we would try to hide it from our

parents? I can remember breaking certain

things in my house and I would quickly try to clean it up,

throw away any evidence. Later on my parents would ask,

does anybody know where the vase is that used to be on this

table? This also applies to things

we're ashamed of, doesn't it? I think I've told the story

before, but I can remember wetting the bed as as as old as

like 3rd or 4th grade. I did not want my parents to

know. I certainly did want my older

brother to know. I did not want him to hide that.

So what did I do? I just turned the mattress over.

We grow up learning to hide our sin.

We grow up learning to hide our mistakes.

It goes all the way back to the garden, where Adam and Eve are

naked, hiding in the bushes. We're so terrified for people to

find out who is the real me. And so when we come to a passage

that commands us to confess our sins to one another, it can be

quite unsettling, isn't it? Now, of course, there are

culturally acceptable sins. You know, some sins that we have

no problem confessing to one another because they're

culturally acceptable. It's like what?

We all struggle with that. But then there are those sins

that we're really ashamed of. We don't want anybody to know

about. How do we get past this wall of

fear? How do we get past this wall of

fear? Fear of being exposed?

Fear of being known? The answer lies in this word.

Therefore the answer lies in that word.

Therefore, James writes, Therefore confess your sins to

one another. Now why does it lie in the Word?

Therefore, because James had just written, if he has

committed sins, he will be forgiven by the Lord.

What this tells us is that if God Forgives us of our sins, why

would we ever be fearful or hesitant to confess to one

another? You see, it doesn't ultimately

matter what anybody else thinks of us.

Ultimately, it only ultimately matters what God thinks of us.

And he says he forgives us. Brothers, sisters, let that

forgiveness give you freedom to freely confess your sins to one

another #2 If we confess our sins to God, why do we also need

to confess our sins to one another?

You ever wonder that if if we can confess our sins to God, why

do we also need to confess our sins to one another?

One of the doctrines that I am so grateful for, especially with

the Protestant Reformation, is the priesthood of the believer.

This doctrine teaches us that we have direct access to God

without the need for a priest, right?

Like you don't need, I'm not a priest, but like, you don't need

me to access God. You don't need a priest to

access God. This is true for worship, it's

true for prayer, it's true for confession of sin.

Now in the Catholic Church, if you want to confess your sins,

you have to go to a local priest and sit in the confessional

booth and confess your sins to him.

We don't need to do that. Why?

Because Jesus Christ has given us direct access to God.

All of us have direct access to God Almighty.

So anytime that we sin, we can right then and right there

confess our sins to God. He will forgive us if we are

truly repentant and, and it's done.

Now, as glorious as that doctrine is, there are some

potential temptations that come with it.

One of those temptations is to think that the church is not

necessary, right? In other words, the, the, the

thinking is, is if I have direct access to God, if you're telling

me that I don't, I don't need to go to the temple anymore.

I don't need a priest anymore. If I can just go directly to God

through His Word, through prayer, through confession, then

I don't need the church. That's not true.

That's not true. Here's another temptation even

for Christians who faithfully attend church.

Here's a temptation is to think, if I can confess my sins

directly to God and receive His forgiveness directly from Him,

then why do I need to confess my sins to one another?

Why do I need to air my dirty laundry to one another?

Let me give you 6 quick reasons, very brief 6 quick reasons that

we should confess our sins to one another and not just to God.

A Confessing to one another produces a unique humility in

our life. It's humbling to confess your

sin to one another, isn't it? Sometimes it's humiliating, but

God uses that moment to graft in us a unique humility.

B Confessing to one another provides tangible

accountability. Tangible accountability?

You see, we can become good at tuning out the Holy Spirit.

We can become very good at tuning out the Holy Spirit.

It becomes a little more difficult to tune out tangible,

audible humans. See, confessing to one another

gives the church body the opportunity to show grace.

One of the most beautiful pictures of the gospel is when a

brother or sister confesses sin to us and we are given the

opportunity to show them the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

D Confessing to one another brings sin into the light

because we know that God sees everything.

You know what? The day.

That's a wonderful doctrine. But you know what the danger of

that is? We could think, well, God sees

everything, so I'm never in darkness because God sees

everything. That's not true.

We can deceive ourselves in thinking that we're in the light

when we're actually in the darkness.

Confessing to one another exposes the darkness, and it

brings the sin into the light. E Confessing to one another is

contagious. It's contagious.

We learn how to confess sin to one another by others confessing

sin to us, and vice versa. If nobody is doing this, nobody

ever knows how to do it. F last one confessing to one

another guards against hypocrisy.

There are no hypocrites with God.

No one can be a hypocrite to God because he sees all things.

He knows all things, but not so with the church.

You can be a hypocrite in the church.

I don't know. I don't know what you do on your

own time. You don't know what I do on my

own time. It's all too easy to slowly

become a hypocrite in the church.

Confession guards against this. Brothers, sisters, it is not

enough to simply confess your sins to God.

We also need to confess to one another #3 prayer is one of the

few gifts that we all get to give.

Prayer is one of the few gifts that we all get to give in the

game of basketball, One of the lessons that's so important for

a team to realize. This is probably true in all

sports, but I'll just use basketball since that's what I'm

most familiar with. In the game of basketball, one

of the lessons that's so important for a team to realize

is this. Not everybody can be a scorer.

Not everybody can be a point guard, right?

My coach used to tell me, like, you're a big, you're not a point

guard. Don't bring the ball down the

court. Not everybody can be a point

guard. Not everybody can make

spectacular passes. Just because your teammate can

make a spectacular pass doesn't mean you can.

Not everybody can be a leader. Not everybody can be a hero and

take the last shot. The team can only function

properly if they all know that they have different giftings,

capacities and roles. Same is true in the church.

This is why Paul talks about gifts in the church, right?

Not everybody can be a teacher. Not everybody can be a leader.

Not everybody will have the gift of wisdom or knowledge or

prophecy or faith or mercy, right?

That that's how it works. But there there is one gift that

we all get to give and that is prayer.

You all get to exercise this gift of grace to pray for one

another. Earlier he had said that the

sick person should call on the elders of the church, the elders

to come and pray over him. But now he exhorts the church,

he says, all of you be praying for one another.

Prayer is such a wonderful gift because you don't have to be a

leader to do it. You don't have to be a teacher

to do it. You don't need to be an elder or

a Deacon. You don't need to go to seminary

for it. You don't need to be a Christian

for 10 years. You don't need to get

specialized training. You know, I was thinking about

this, like, how many professions do you have to get hundreds, if

not thousands of hours before they will let you practice it,

right? Like doctors, right.

Which I'm thankful for. I don't want to.

You have to go to a doctor. And it's like, like, how long,

How many hours have you been doing this?

This is my first operation. Doctors have hours.

Psychologists, physical therapists, electricians,

plumbers, cosmetologists, airline pilots, they all have to

record hundreds or thousands of hours before they can practice

this. But we don't need a prayer

certificate. We don't need to take a course

in prayer. We don't need to have 1000

supervised hours. If you are in Christ, you are

competent and qualified to pray for one another.

God has given you permission and access to his throne of grace to

intercede for your brothers and sisters, all of you.

It's one of the few gifts that we all get to give.

So let's give it. Let's regularly give it for

physical and spiritual healing are better positioned with

confession and prayer. Physical and spiritual healing

are better positioned with confession and prayer.

Over the years when I have talked to young men who are

interested and potentially asking a girl out, I will tell

them you need to take some steps to better position yourself of

her chances of saying yes. If you show up in sweatpants and

AT shirt that hasn't been washed in a week, maybe she'll go for

that. Maybe she likes that, you know,

casual, laid back kind of smelly person.

But there are better ways to position yourself.

Take a shower, shave, get a haircut, comb your hair, put on

some nice clothes, brush your teeth, maybe a little bit of

Cologne, not too much. Don't overdo it.

Now all of this is no guarantee that she will say yes.

You may do all the right things and she still said no, but it

does better position you to receive a yes.

So what about with the Lord? Are we able to better position

ourselves with the Lord? James writes.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one

other. And here it is that that you may

be healed. Now James is not saying you will

be healed, he's saying that you may.

In other words, confession and prayer better position ourselves

to move the heart of God. Let me give you a few examples

from Scripture. Remember Hezekiah?

He grew sick and was to the point of death.

Isaiah told him. Thus says the Lord, set your

house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.

Now this is a prophet of God. This is Isaiah telling him,

Isaiah said, Hezekiah, you're going to die, you're not going

to recover. Now I don't know about you, but

that sounds pretty final. I think if Isaiah had told me

that I've been like, all right, I guess I'm fine, but not to

Hezekiah. What did he do?

He turned and he prayed to the Lord.

And what did the Lord say? I have heard your prayer.

I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you.

He gives him 15 more years. Imagine if he hadn't prayed.

He would have died. He would have died.

Remember Miriam, she and Aaron opposed Moses, challenging his

authority. So the Lord disciplines her with

leprosy. We're giving every indication

that this discipline of the Lord was permanent leprosy.

I don't think it's just like temporary leprosy.

I think the Lord was going to, she was going to have leprosy

the rest of her life. But what did Moses do?

Moses cried to the Lord. Oh God, please heal her.

Please. And what did the Lord do?

He healed. Brothers and sisters, do you

want motivation to confess your sins to one another?

Do you want motivation to pray for one other?

Here it is. It better positions us to be

physically and spiritually healed #5 you don't have to be a

pastor or a priest or a prophet or a missionary or an elder or a

Deacon or a leader or a teacher or an apostle or even a mature

Christian for your prayers to be powerful and effective.

You don't have to be any of that.

I will often joke with my wife that I think the Lord likes her

more than me. I think He does.

There have been so many times where I've been working on a

project and I'm stuck. I can't figure out how to fix

something. I can't move forward with this.

And I have prayed. I mean, I have prayed.

I have prayed, I have prayed. Still no progress.

And then Lauren will, I'll get her involved, she'll pray and

it's solved. And I jumped with her.

I, the Lord, must like you more than me.

She doesn't like it when I say that.

The reality is, is that we might subconsciously or even

consciously think that our prayers don't accomplish that

much. You ever felt the way like you

ever felt like I don't really feel like my prayers do that

much. And this is where James wants to

correct our thinking. Our prayers are powerful and

effective. James references Elijah, who had

performed miracles unsurpassed by anybody in the Old Testament.

The man had told a widow that our flour and oil would not run

out, and it didn't run out. He raised a widow's dead son

from the dead. He called down fire from heaven.

He parted the Jordan River. He was taken to heaven without

dying. And in this example here he

prayed that a drought would happen for 3 1/2 years and it

did. And then he prayed again and it

started to rain. The brother can pray and fire

will fall from heaven and he can also pray and rain, not fall

from heaven. Now we might think, man, he's in

a super spiritual category. It's a category I could never

attain to. There were times I've wanted to

go golfing and I prayed it didn't rain and it rains every

time. I know Elijah, but look at what

James says. Elijah was a man with a nature

like ours. He was a human just like you and

me. Now we might think, yeah, OK,

but he was a righteous human. Which leaves the number six.

Number six, What makes prayer powerful and effective is not

the righteous person, but the righteous. 1 What makes prayer

powerful and effective is not the righteous person, but the

righteous 1 One of my favorite quotes is by a preacher named

Paul Washer. I don't think he coined it, but

Washer frequently states it like this.

There are no great men of God. There are only small, weak,

faithless men of a great and merciful God.

Prayer is powerful and effective, but what makes it

powerful and effective is not the righteous person, but the

righteous. 1 Remember when Joseph was able to interpret

Pharaoh's dreams when nobody else in Egypt could?

What did Joseph say? It is not in me.

Oh Pharaoh. God will give Pharaoh A

favorable answer. Remember when David came out to

fight Goliath? What did he say?

The battle will be one that all the earth may know that there is

a God in Israel. Remember what Daniel was called

in to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dreams when none of his wise men

could? What did he say?

Oh, king, no wise men or enchanters or magicians or

astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has

asked. But there is a God in heaven who

reveals mysteries. Remember when Peter healed the

lame man? What did he say?

Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?

Why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we

made Him walk? We must be so careful not to

think that the power and efficacy of our prayers is

directly correlated to our righteousness.

Our righteousness does not empower our prayers.

Christ's righteousness empowers our prayers.

Brothers and sisters, don't ever forget 2 truths about prayer.

They are powerful and effective, and what makes them powerful and

effective is not the righteous person, but the righteous 1.

Be careful in thinking that like, oh, I haven't lived very

well this life. This week I've been in sin.

It's not going to matter if I pray because God wouldn't listen

anyway. If that's your thinking, let me

clue you in. Under that premise, He should

never listen to you because in and of yourself you are always

wicked in His eyes. Just because you read your Bible

this week and prayed and served in church doesn't mean like, oh,

I'm on God's good side now He'll listen to me.

That's not how it works. And yes, if you want to hear the

other side of the coin, can our sin hinder our prayers?

Yes, it can. Peter says this in first.

Peter #7 last point, Sometimes you have to pray 7 times before

you see a little cloud. Sometimes you have to pray 7

times before you see a little cloud.

One of the questions I have been asked about prayer many times

through the years is this. How long should I keep praying?

Like, how do I know when to stop?

You're praying for something. You're waiting for God to

answer. No answer.

You pray No answer. Pray no answer.

How long should I keep praying? How long should I do this?

When should I stop? Should I stop?

Here's the challenge. There are examples in Scripture

where despite asking for something multiple times, God's

answer was no. Moses asked to go to the

promised land multiple times. God said no.

Paul asked for the thorn to be removed three times.

All three times God's answer was no.

Even Jesus asked the Father three times if it was possible

for the cup to pass. God's answer was no.

But there are many more examples where the Lord answered only

after persistent prayer. Jesus healed the Canaanite

woman's daughter only after she persisted in asking Him.

Hannah prayed for years for a child and was finally given one.

The church prayed earnestly for Peter's release from jail, and

he was released. In the parable, the persistent

widow Jesus said that she asked the judge continually for

justice, and he finally gives it to her.

And even Elijah James says then he prayed again and it rained.

But if you go back and read the story, here's what actually

happened. Elijah went up on top of Mount

Carmel. He bowed down to the earth.

He put his face between his knees.

He told his servant, go up now and look to the sea.

So a servant does. He looks out, He says there's

nothing. There is nothing.

How many times have we prayed and said the same thing?

There is nothing. But what did Elijah tell him to

do? Go again?

Go again? Seven times, and the seventh

time he said, behold, I see a little cloud, like a man's hand

rising from the sea, church bodies.

Sometimes you have to pray 7 times or 97 times before you see

a little cloud. Let's pray.